If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know?The question of racism involves Baum’s editorials on the Sioux, which I discussed back here. The Munchkins as metaphor might refer to the silly Populist allegory theory. As for the Wicked Witch, she was green in MGM’s Technicolor movie; in Baum’s book, she had only one eye.
The “Wizard of Oz” novelist, L. Frank Baum. . . If he really was a racist as is rumored. And if so, how could he write such a heartfelt story? Were the Munchkins a metaphor? Did he have the Wicked Witch of the West killed off because he hated green people?
But Cranston’s fundamental question remains: What is the source of heart-warming art? Does it require an author to be pure of heart himself? Or is that a requirement we fans wish to impose?
No comments:
Post a Comment